You Should Be Listening to Deb Never
Image From: Highnobiety
If there is one artist you should be paying close attention to this year, it’s 26-year-old singer-songwriter Deb Never. Deb’s music is an interesting blend of grunge-pop and R&B, with heavy basslines, thick, distorted guitar lines, and trap-like beats, but the most unique and interesting part of her music is her angelic, almost ethereal voice.
Growing up in the pacific northwest, Deb began writing music at the age of 15 before moving to Los Angeles. She released two singles on SoundCloud, and it didn’t take long for her to start collaborating with producer D33J, performing on two songs on his album Infinity 33.
Her first EP, House on Wheels, was only released in 2019, but she is already starting to create a name for herself in the music industry. Alongside her first longer release, she also collaborated with Brockhampton on their album Ginger with a feature on the song No Halo and toured with Florida rapper Dominic Fike. This year, she has released Stone Cold (with Kenny Beats) and
A collection of songs she wrote during the pandemic lockdown entitled Intermission (available on SoundCloud, Youtube, and Bandcamp).
Intermission has many of the qualities that made Deb’s earlier music so alluring, but in a way that feels more self-assured and more refined. She really leans into the two sides of her music: the folk-like attributes of her voice really shine through in songs like Our Song, and the grungy, hip-hop production takes over on tracks like April Mud. This blend of pop and r&b feels natural, not at all forced, and it offers us a fresh and new way to look at both genres.
The album ends with the track Not Okay, a song that features only vocals and a guitar. The song is achingly vulnerable, almost as if it’s begging you to listen to it. This record captures something very honest and real, but without losing any of the cool, effortless sound that is characteristic of Deb’s music.
With such a stunning latest release and the magnitude of her success pre-quarantine, Deb Never is an artist that should be watched closely in the coming years, as her career is only just beginning.